Useless, futile, pointless

Those were the only words that can only be described for what he had done for the past 10 years, the pursuit for his brother was a failed task, wasted.

His knees pitched forward, nails digging through the wooden board as he does so, painting it with ashes from his fingers, dragging pins and papers to be scattered along with them. Unnerving eyes losing their focus as his breath tried to steady itself, he was sweating, drenching the collars of his shirt.

This whole week has taken a toll on him but today was the awaited spiraling that had hid for years, waiting for its chance to plummet its way into his face, the fact that the 5 years of hidden investigation, his search, and the leads were all— in vain.

A laugh breaks, small chuckles infused with gasps and hiccups of his sobbing tears that were staining his cheeks, all his efforts were only for it all to crumble down because of one trespasser that stole those clues.

It wasn't a clue at all, it was just a path to the crumbling realization of his. Someone, someone dared to steal all his clues.

He was sure the culprit was taunting him, leaving trails of their footsteps, their leads, their tricks that he falsely assumed he could see through. Leo, for the first time in 5 years, was wrong.

An old building, worn down and abandoned, it was presumably a factory building before it was shut down to be left rot in this quiet poor street, he wondered why the culprit decided to lure him in here.

And then the scent of ashes hit his nose.

Dread lumped itself in his throat as he rushed up the creaking copper stairs, it was something he thought of before, but not something he expected to actually happen.

The next thing he remembered was his palm being smeared with burnt down ashes of what was left, engulfed by an extinguished flame as he cried, he wondered if the thief felt guilt after hearing his cries. Ashes became lumps of mud under his tears, sticking to wherever Leo spreaded it.

  A single strand of dark red hair in his view fluttered down sluggishly to the burnt papers as if to mock him, but it was enough for him to recognize who did this.

Enough time for him to process his emotions as he stood up.

He rushed back to his house, it wasn't that far but he did need a ride, thank the fucking gods that one of the skilled mechanic he helped a case with offered him one of her creations, a two wheeled vehicle, it caused a lot of smoke but it's fast. (and looks cool)

Leo can be said lucky because this street didn't have any police or guards or else he would have been dead meat, or even be brought back to his family, whatever option is bad but he managed to arrive at his home. Barging in the door and immediately targeting his work desk, spreading all sheets of paper, desperately trashing and throwing any useless info away, hoping that the thief didn't steal other things especially about them— 

Red hair red hair red hair red hair red hair.

He found all of them, pictures of culprits with red hair, most of them had been solved, but something was missing, he knew one of the pictures were missing and Leo once again found himself in the edge of a cliff before he fell into a pit of abyss. He couldn't comprehend it, the culprit was smart, more intelligent than he had expected, were they playing with him? Taunting their moves at him everytime he thinks he has found a clue to his brother's whereabouts?

That was how he ended up this way, knees down on the floor, nails scraped and his fingertips throbbing as he tried to breathe with his mouth instead of his nose. Did he really cry that much until his nose was clogged? Gods, he really was pathetic.

5 years in these gods damned dangerous city street slums in the middle of other lively places in the Everiot's empire for a sole piece of clue, all gone wasted, his motivation for Going into this city had been depleted.

He swiped his snotty nose with his thumb, "Ough- Gods…!" Leo coughed, he had forgotten his hands were smeared with ashes and it had gotten into his nose.

It made him feel worse, realizing how gullible and weak he is in this state, tears threatened to spill once again as the detective hiccuped, "Fuck!" He cursed. He had to remind himself, he wasn't weak, he wasn't gullible!

Then why is he here like this?

It asked in the back of his mind, the only answer was a sob that broke from Leo, "What am I supposed to do…?" Continue being a detective, maybe, it was already too late to turn back.

'Clank'

Leo's sobs stopped abruptly as he heard the sound of metal cans dropping down behind his office's door, he wouldn't be surprised if it was a rat, so he ignored it but then —

A curse, a man's voice, and a few steps that Leo would assume to be him stepping back. So he stood up, zoomed towards the door and then practically slammed it open to find the rooted halls to be empty, where was that intruder? Echoes of running footsteps found its way to him, he was glad he bought a house that doesn't have that many free-to-open windows, most of them are just gigantic decorative glass with no way of opening them so the intruder must still be near, assuming they just dropped that can.

The problem is that he had no way of knowing if the trespasser knew about his house or not. 

His house can be considered a small, two floored house, he wouldn't be surprised if they know their ways here because there have been people before him living in this house, so he needs to act quickly.

"Fucking tartarus," he cursed as his feets made haste, dropping down through the stairs, skipping the steps mid-way and just jumped over the railings to the first floor with a stomp. Muttering, "Can this day get any worse- AGH—" he was interrupted by his own foot being swept away by- of course, the intruder, he was sure even if he couldn't see them.

Well, unfortunate for the intruder, Leo knows how to defend himself so he grabbed the — assumedly, arms and pulled the trespasser down with him, "Got you!" he shouted while the other cursed : "SHIT—!" 

And something caught Leo's eyes, long, dark, red hair that seemed dark brown in the unlit lights before the both of them hit the ground. Leo quickly recovered, harshly grabbing the trespasser's hairs between his fingers, "You!" He hissed.

"Lysus fucking Morel—!" They cursed, 

Leo took the chance to slam the intruder to the ground, straddling his legs between their waist to trap them before holding their arm to the ground, "You."

A man of similar age to Leo, long straight red hair and an eyepatch embroidered with golden stitches. The detective grabbed his collar, "Why did you burn them?" Leo asked, but the criminal didn't budge.

"...your holds are weak, detective."

Oh wow that was hot but wait SHIT— before Leo realized that he was locking the man wrong he's suddenly thrown back onto the floor, and without wasting time the criminal grabbed the lamp near as Leo got up and-

'Twak!' it hit Leo in the head and he was back on the ground, "Agh! You little shit!" He shouted before looking back at the trespasser, and he started thinking that maybe the word 'little shit' doesn't fit this man because oh boy he's tall, maybe even taller than Leo and it just managed to intimidate the detective especially because he could see his broad form being highlighted by the dim light of his house.

"Right, let's do this-" unexpected to Leo, the trespasser stepped back before kicking the door open and running away, "hey- HEY— come back here!" Coward! Leo figured as he ran after him.

If any of the neighbors saw him they would have thought this was a silly chase fight between friends, even when he's screaming at the criminal to come back because he's a coward, unfortunately he forgot to mention that this was the red hive season, where nights are lively and markets are everywhere, it was created 34 years ago and the commoners held it yearly.

So soon enough they encounter one of the markets, 'DAMMIT!!' Leo cursed internally.

The crowd was massive, a clear problem for Leo and a luck for the escaper, a lot of people there knows the detective and wanted to talk to him, he dismissed them quickly in order to catch this son of a bitch, he was starting to regret building his reputation here because people would crowd or delay him a bit.

Wait, he already built his reputation, they deem him as good and— oh, oh yeah, it's all coming together.

"Somebody, help me catch that man!" Leo yelled as he pointed towards the trespasser, and a big number of people turned towards the direction he pointed, ahh…the feeling of the positive effect from your hard work of five years in this slum, gaining the trust of people and trusting them.

From afar he could see the man turn around for a second before dodging a person who was about to catch him and dashing through the small alley in the corner, the other people there hesitated so Leo was forced to go in the small alley by himself.

Okay, bad news moment, he realized this was an alley that led to the next street, and it doesn't help that it's long, moist, muddy, not reached by moonlight or sun and is only lit by the house lights from the window, anddd it's branched! So absolutely great in the most sarcastic way!

It doesn't help that Leo's breath was getting ragged, this chase is taking a toll on him, but he can't stop, he can't. So he keeps on going, there's hope.

The silhouette of the man started to blur with the minimal lights, was he getting tired and seeing things? Leo doesn't care, as the criminal keeps running, so does Leo, he followed him until the stairs of the buildings, until it was rooftops and still they kept running.

Unfortunately they reached the point that they will need to parkour, an 'Oh no' for Leo and an 'Oh yeah' from the criminal, he's already weak from all this running and now he has to jump around!? Are you kidding!? Leo, as tired as he is, decided to follow this man.

"You can still hold up?" The trespasser taunts, for the first time while on the chase, So he's cocky. Leo wished he had brought his gun, specifically the one that's made by the same artificer that made his motor.

While chasing him, Leo thinks, does he remember the info of this man? It rhymes with the word 'Alien' but he can't quite remember, the man jumped to the next roof, and it's a risky one this time, scrap metals fused into one, rusty, and old, he doesn't even know how it could withstand the weight of this criminal.

Strangely, the criminal stopped to look at Leo, and Leo took a full breath to fill his lungs for a hot minute as he analyzed the appearance of the runaway, and..he realized it, finally. Leo has info on this man, but it's only his name because he's extremely hard to look into, discreet and everything about that.

Illien is his first name, Ji is his surname.

Illien Ji, oh Leo's so gonna come for his ass no matter what, especially when he looks up at Leo with such confidence and mocks, "okay okay.." Leo stepped back, jumping for a bit of practice, the distance is far but he can reach it, he can reach it! "Here I go."

And Leo dashed forward, stepping up the concrete and jumped.

and oh, oh tartarus, the gap is deep, he wouldn't be surprised if he immediately died if he dived down there instead. Just a second was enough for him to send himself flying right towards that criminal, swiftly(horribly) landing on the roof and— accidentally making a hole as he grabbed the trespasser by the shoulders before he fell through the roof and inside the building.

Leo gasped, of course, if outside it's full of scraps and sharp metals, the inside would too, and he just shanked his chest on to a rusty sharp pipe, possibly straight through his heart.

While the criminal landed safely, in front of him, staring in horror at his stabbed chest.

Leo should be dead by now, or by 20 seconds, but he's alive, he's in writhing pain as he feels the pipe falling down and dragging him with it, clanking to the ground. "Move," he begs himself, "Move." He repeats and he manages to, despite the numbing pain and by someone pulling him, helping him.

Unfortunately, his consciousness faded as quickly as everything escalated, he just wished he could at least see his brother one last time.

Even as a ghost, or anything, he had almost forgotten how his face looked.

…He should just rest now, everything was in vain.

***

Waking up to the face of the literal personification of death wasn't such a great experience in his opinion, In'e was never described to be a horrific creature in any religion, legend, myth that he ever encountered or researched.

Still, waking up to a drenched dry horrific jellyfish with a disgusting and rotting look is..not pleasant.